Brad Winchester got the NHL deal he was looking for, and he got it from the Stanley Cup champs. Will he play with the Blackhawks or with the IceHogs? Probably the latter. Maybe both. But after spending last season with Milwaukee on two PTO contracts, you certainly can’t fault him for jumping to a team that was willing to give him the NHL deal. If he has a great training camp, or if the injury bug starts spreading along the midway, I don’t think it’d be too much of a stretch to see him on the 4th line with the big club.

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Do you know Tyler Doig? He’s a former professional hockey player who is a strength and conditioning coach now. And he’s on twitter. And he knows people.

Congrats to RevCon athlete Bryan Rodney on his deal with Nashville! #Preds

I haven’t seen anything official about this yet, but if it’s true, that sounds like a good signing.

He’s a 29 year old defensemen, standing 6’0, with 34 games of NHL experience with the Hurricanes and Oilers….mostly with the Canes. He has won something…he was part of the Memorial Cup winning London Knights in 2004-05. He spent last year with the Manchester Monarchs, but didn’t sign until December. He’s also a two-time AHL all-star.

Aaron Sims offered this tweet this afternoon…

Re: Bryan Rodney…@mkeadmirals coaches always knew to account for him when played against his team. Much respect for his offensive ability.

Will he be an Admiral? I think that’ll be up to Ryan Ellis and Mattias Ekholm. If they’re not ready for prime time, and could use the opportunity to play every day, Rodney might be able to stay with the Preds as the 7th defenseman. It’s possible. If they are ready for prime time, we can probably expect Rodney to be QB-ing our power play.

Well….all this if Tyler Doig’s scoop is right.

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Coaches Evason and Drulia signed contract extensions today that would keep them here through the 2014-15 season.

AHL coaching contracts aren’t the most binding contracts in the world….if an opportunity presents itself (cough…Kirk Muller), they’ll leave town. But I think this offer from Nashville management says a lot about how they feel regarding the way Evason and Drulia ran the ship last year.

Aaron has said on the radio show numerous times how great the locker room was this year. It’s not a fluke or an accident. And with all of the players that saw their games take giant steps forward last year, the coaches are obviously helping great things ON the ice too.